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Planning your wedding should be a fun and exciting time for you both. There are so many things to remember and it can sometimes get a little overwhelming. However, there are various tips you can follow to ensure that not only does your planning run smoothly but most importantly your wedding day.

Firstly, and most importantly, you must set yourselves a realistic budget for your wedding. You don’t want to be paying it off for the first five years of your married life. Think about what you can comfortably afford to spend without denying yourself the basics like toilet paper and food!

Set yourself up with a spreadsheet and put the maximum budget at the top. Then list all the things that you need for your wedding, in a shoulda woulda coulda kind of way!

What should you have at your wedding, what are the essentials that you actually need to have a wedding rather than just eloping to get married in Gretna Green.

What could you have if your budget allows for it, not essentials but they are often found at most weddings.

What would you have if you had a bottomless budget or would be prepared to tweak money from other areas to have them.

Shoulda

Church or ceremony venue

Registrar / Church / Banns

Reception Venue

Dress

Suits

Catering

Photographer

Flowers

Cake

Stationery / Invitations

Woulda

Table Decorations

Reception Drinks

Canapes

Wedding Cars

Transport for Guests

Hotel

Coulda

Photo booth

Childcare facilities

Sweet Cart

Fireworks

Favours

Start researching suitable venues. Based on your budget, think about what day of the week might bring the cost of the venue down. It’s becoming just as popular to get married on a Tuesday as it is on a Saturday.

Once you have the ceremony venue (be it church or civil service venue) and the reception venue date booked in and a deposit paid, then you can start looking for your suppliers. Lots of venues now have preferred suppliers that they recommend. This can sometimes take the pressure off who to book. Preferred suppliers will know the venue well and they can advise you on what will and won’t work. It would be worth attending the venues’ wedding open day or open evening so that you can meet their suppliers for yourself, and get an idea of what the venue might look like when it’s all set up.

Don’t be afraid to ask for a quote, all suppliers will be able to do this for you, but don’t expect an accurate quote instantly, they will need to go away and price up things such as ingredients, cost of flowers, editing time, material costs, before they can accurately quote for you.

Once you have all the quotes in front of you, you can realistically assess which ones fit with your budget.

Whilst booking your suppliers add their costs to your spreadsheet so you can keep a running total of your spend and make sure you’re on budget.

Be realistic about what you can afford, do you really need the custom-made underwear when your dress doesn’t allow for a bra. Do you really need ten bridesmaids? What are they all going to do for you? Do you need to have champagne for the toast? Sparkling wine is a nice alternative for what most people just sip for the toast and then leave.

When I got married my husband was firmly in charge of the budget and we did not go over it at all. We accounted for every receipt, no matter how small, it all became part of the budget. It seemed a bit rigid to me at the time, but when I looked at the bigger picture it made sense. We went on our honeymoon safe in the knowledge that we didn’t owe any one anything, there were no outstanding payments to suppliers or the venue, it was a good feeling and meant we could relax.

I’ll be honest with you, I love the wedding industry, I love all things weddings. But when I think back to weddings I’ve attended as a guest, I’ve been hard pushed to remember their colour theme, or overall theme, what they had as their centre pieces, what we ate, what added extras they threw in.

A vicar at a wedding I attended once, opened a bottle of stout and poured it out, he described the frothy head of the drink as the wedding day, fun and light, but it soon fades away, whereas the actual dark malty liquid represents marriage, strong, full, steady, sometimes cloudy but always constant.

So It doesn’t matter how many guests you have, how fancy your venue is, how many tiers your cake has, how huge your bouquet is or how many bridesmaids you have, all that matters is the vows you exchange at the altar.

Very occasionally a project drops into your lap, that not only excites you, but really challenges you. The amazing project that dropped into my lap was from our very own Natalie Burgess of Louise Perry Weddings. Our girl is getting married in September and I was absolutely honoured to be asked to make her wedding invitations. She knows some great stationers out there, so to be selected was a real compliment.

Natalie and Adrian came for a consultation and were quite secretive and giggly to start with. Natalie announced that she had a challenge for me, and promptly pulled out a tipi style construction and asked if I could turn it into an invitation. After picking myself up from the floor, I took a long look at the tipi and thought - yeah, I can do this!

Not only did they present me with that challenge, they also wanted a hand painted map of where the church and venue are. I haven't painted for a while so it was both thrilling and scary to get my paints out again.

I started with the design of the tipi, ensuring that all the wedding information fitted on each side of it, I made a few test tipis to make sure that they stayed up and stayed together, which they did.

I had to also find an envelope that was the right size to house the tipi when it was flattened down for transit, and to fit the bamboo sticks into. The guests would then have the fun of constructing the tipi themselves upon opening.

Next was tackling the map, I found a good picture of the church online and drew an outline of it. I then settled down with the paints and spent a really enjoyable afternoon painting the church. I also hand drew and painted an illustration of a bluebell, as they are having their reception in a Bluebell Wood.

When you work with a wedding planner, it can be a little intimidating to show them your work, as they see many other stationers who are brilliant at what they do. However, Natalie and Adrian were really happy with the finished product and paintings and the great thing is, they have been well received by the guests, who have sent the happy couple photos of their completed tipis.

This is a project that I am really proud off, it tested my current skills and taught me new ones.